First things first... What is a Topline Vocal?
A Topline Vocal or ( Topline ) is a vocal melody and lyrics that is written and recorded on top of a backing instrumental track that has already been created.
Now that we've got that out of the way, let's dive in!
6 Solid Steps To Creating Awesome Topline Vocals - or click to buy one here!
1. Create An Image:
Get comfortable, turn the music up nice and loud, then close your eyes and begin to tap into how the music makes you feel - does it make you sad, happy, chilled out, super stoked? Once you've gotten clear on the feeling the music gives you, it's time to start imagining a scene from a movie or real life - perhaps a couple is breaking up, or someone was cheated on, or the main characters are heading out on a summer adventure, or it's a memory of the good times of the past. These images in your head will be the overall theme of your Topline Vocal.
2. Brainstorm:
*Old School Alert* grab a piece of paper and a pen... I know, crazy right!?
Put the main feeling that you get from the music in the middle of the page, and then start surrounding that word (ex. Sadness) with other words that fit within the theme of Sadness. The purpose of this is to find a cool title for your song.
Sadness: winter - dark - cold - lonely - hurt - abandoned - clouds - rain - teardrops - lost - confused - longing - wishing - wanting - broken - heart - eyes - grey.
Potential Song Title: "Lonely Teardrops"
3. Create The Story:
It's time to create a relatable story around your song title now. This particular song title should be a breeze to come up with a story line that will be felt by pretty much all humans everywhere, as we've all shed a few "Lonely Teardrops" at one time or another in our lives. If you can't draw from personal experience, try to think in a cinematic way - picture scenes in a movie and put them into words.
4. Make The Melody:
Set your backing track to loop on a certain section of the song: verse or chorus. Then start humming/chanting/singing gibberish over that section using a few word key words that might fit your song/story/title. For example:
la la la crying and bla bla bla dying
Da da da cold, da da da alone
Just keep looping through this section with gibberish and some key words until a melody begins to almost write itself, something solid will start to fit right into the music, and there you have your melody! Repeat this process for each section - Verse - Chorus - etc.
5. Structure Of Song / Write The Lyrics:
Nine times out of Ten the structure is gonna be:
Verse - Chorus - Verse - Chorus - Bridge - Chorus (or something very similar like):
Verse - Pre Chorus - Chorus - Verse - Pre Chorus - Chorus - Bridge - Chorus
You'll be most successful if the title of the song is used and repeated in the Chorus.
Now you want to think about what you would say in real life to someone before you said the phrase "Lonely Teardrops" - It might be something like:
I'm so sick n' tired of these lonely teardrops!
And then you can go further to that point:
She's gone again and I'm feeling lost. I'm so sick n' tired of these lonely teardrops!
You can see how this becomes a bit of a real world conversation now. And you can take this approach all the way back to the verse - working toward your main song title chorus line in a conversational manner. Feel free to implement - Past, Present, and Future into your story as well.
6. Record
Be realistic - do not skimp on this step. If someone else can sign the song better than you can, then make sure to get them in to record, or send it off to them so that you give your song the absolute best chance of being a massive success.
Conclusion
It's always great to learn how to do things yourself, even just to a decent level so that you understand the process but in reality it's never a bad idea (if you can afford it) to hire someone with strengths that you don't have, in order to take your project to the next level. If you focus on what you're great at while hiring other's to do what they're great at, you're bound to end up with a great product. So why not head over to www.vokaal.com and find yourself a high-quality Topline Vocal at a price you can afford. Happy music making, all the best!